Saturday, September 13, 2025

Jazz head at Kennedy Middle is the newest firing : NPR

The grand foyer in the John F. Kennedy Center for the performing arts

The grand lobby within the John F. Kennedy Middle for the performing arts

Ron Blunt/Kennedy Middle


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Ron Blunt/Kennedy Middle

The John F. Kennedy Middle for the Performing Arts has fired one other staffer: Kevin Struthers, a senior director of music programming who had been on the D.C. arts establishment for 30 years. Struthers confirmed his termination to NPR on Thursday.

His dismissal is the newest upset in a line of firings and resignations on the Kennedy Middle since President Trump turned its chair in February and appointed Richard Grennell its new president. The Kennedy Middle and NPR co-present the annual live performance A Jazz Piano Christmas.

Their firings had been first reported by The Washington Put up on Thursday.

Struthers had been the executive director of the Kennedy Middle’s jazz programming. Beforehand, the Kennedy Middle had been celebrated for inviting a vibrant roster of established and rising jazz artists. The one mainstage jazz efficiency nonetheless on the Kennedy Middle’s schedule is anOctober efficiency by The Glenn Miller Orchestra, a bunch which started recording in 1939.

The Kennedy Middle’s press workplace didn’t instantly reply to NPR’s request for touch upon the dismissal and a question about the way forward for jazz and Millennium Stage programming. The previous creative director of the group’s jazz programming, composer and pianist Jason Moran, departed in July after becoming a member of the Kennedy Middle in 2011.

Jennifer Vanasco edited this story.

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